Sleepless nights inspire Wendy Yue's exquisite jewellery designs

There is an understated elegance to fine jewellery designer Wendy Yue, and yet her phantasmagoric collections are certainly not for wallflowers. Hers are ornate pieces with resplendent stones, inspired by flora and fauna, animal shapes and legends. It is the vast ocean of her imagination that makes her exquisite, multicoloured collection something to behold.

"I don't sleep much and I'm often most inspired when I have difficulty sleeping," she says while in transit in Taipei, on her way to Hong Kong for a reception at her stockist Plukka's pop-up store in the Landmark. A restless night where she had garish visions of snakes invading her floor led to a serpentine collection a few years ago.

"A lot of times I am on the road, whether driving to work, home, dinner, or running errands, my mind is often in its most stimulated state and all kinds of ideas are generated," Yue says. "I am a multitasker in that sense, I can never be doing one thing at a time."

And yet, among her travels, all roads led to the field of design. Yue, a Hong Kong native, spent her early days studying language and culture in Europe.

"I love Europe. Vienna was a stepping stone into the European culture. It's filled with ancient history and architecture and I find it very calm and soothing whenever I'm there," she says.

She documented her travels with her coloured pencils, sketching everywhere she went. Patterns and shapes formed the basis of future jewellery designs.